Food Insecurity and Aging: A Scoping Study of the Literature

Abstract

Literature on food insecurity (FI) and aging is limited and scattered across disciplines, the reasons for which include the nascence of the study of “hunger” more generally, and relatively lower rates of FI among older people. This scoping review synthesized and characterized the current research to prompt a more critical examination of food insecurity and aging. Data extraction included reviewing and characterizing the empirical, methodological and conceptual contributions of each study, accessed from selected health sciences and social sciences databases. Thirty-eight studies were included from 2,041 titles. Different methods and operationalizations of FI and age were found to be used across studies. Thematic analysis revealed, with few exceptions, consistent tendencies towards the biomedicalization of the FI issue alongside aging. These findings reinforce the value of population-level monitoring of FI and uptake of standard measures. Moving forward, the issue of FI and aging is an opportune topic for critical social analysis.

Do state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program policies influence program participation among seniors?

“…In 2016, 13.6% of seniors in the United States were marginally food‐insecure, 7.7% were food‐insecure, and 2.9% had very low food security (Ziliak & Gundersen, 2018). Existing research suggests that seniors are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and may experience severe health consequences (Leroux et al, 2020). Relative to food‐secure seniors, food‐insecure seniors have lower nutrient intakes and are at a higher risk of a wide variety of adverse health conditions, including diabetes, depression, activities of daily living limitations, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, heart attack, and asthma (Gundersen & Ziliak, 2015, 2017; Leroux et al, 2020).…”

Food insecurity and disability among working-age and older adults

“…Our results are consistent with research from other high-income countries, which have found that disabled people generally have higher risk of FI than non-disabled people as a result of disadvantage ( 13 , 31 ) . Previous research has also suggested that FI decreases with age ( 31 , 32 ) , but that some groups of older people such disabled people and who are disadvantaged may still be at higher risk of FI at older ages ( 7 , 21 ) . Our findings also support research that indicates that wealth and assets such as savings are particularly important for disabled peoples’ food security ( 33 ) ; indeed, savings eliminated the difference in FI risk between disabled and non-disabled people in older age.…”

“…Additionally, social security (i.e. in the form of state pensions) tends to be more secure, and more services are provided for people of older age (21)(22)(23) . At working age, there is often a large gap in income between disabled and non-disabled people; disabled people are more likely to be in deep poverty and less likely to be in full-time employment (24) ; and disabled people are more likely to have lower educational attainment, earnings and likelihood of home ownership than non-disabled people (25) .…”

Grand challenges in oral health and nutrition: We are what we eat

“…Globally, undernutrition continues to affect primarily mothers and children living in poor communities, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease are rising [ 12 – 14 ]. On the other hand, the growing aging population has a unique set of circumstance—including multimorbidity, frailty, mobility, cognition, and loneliness—that potentially affect health and access to food [ 15 ]. This is the context within which nutrition researchers work (Figure 1 ).…”